David N. Louis, MD

Researcher | 2014

As chief of Mass General’s Department of Pathology, David Louis, MD, and his team perform approximately 10 million laboratory tests and 80,000 surgical pathology evaluations each year — no small feat.

Under Dr. Louis’ leadership, the MGH Department of Pathology has become a world leader in the genetic analysis of tumors. The Louis laboratory was the first to demonstrate that molecular approaches could subdivide malignant gliomas biologically and could predict the response of malignant gliomas to therapies. This work has resulted in worldwide adoption of molecular testing for the management of brain tumor patients. Similarly, the department’s tumor genotyping enables the advanced gene-directed clinical trials taking place at the Mass General Cancer Center. The Department of Pathology is also a world leader in computational pathology and other advanced technologies that are revolutionizing the field.

Dr. Louis is widely recognized for his many contributions, and his awards include the Zülch Prize of the Max Planck Society. He has served as the primary editor of the 2007 World Health Organization’s Classification of Tumours of the Nervous System, as chair of the Scientific Advisory Panel of the Brain Tumor Society, on the Board of Directors of the Society for Neuro-Oncology and on the editorial boards of almost a dozen journals. Dr. Louis was also the founding chair of the Cancer Biomarkers Study Section at the National Institutes of Health.